Law Society Supports Alternative Routes to Licensure

Unlike the US in which we cling to the ABA, guns, Bibles, gallons and inches, The Law Society supports alternative ways to qualify as a lawyer:

Apprenticeship route to the legal profession

10 January 2013

We have welcomed the news that the government has backed an apprenticeship route to the legal profession. We support the development and recognition of alternative routes as long as the quality of new entrants to the profession is maintained at the current high level.

Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said:

'The Society supports the development and recognition of alternative routes, which can achieve the same standard for qualification.

'Alternative routes of entry into the legal profession are essential in order to enable new entrants to gain qualification through a modularised and work-based learning approach, since the costs of education and training through graduate routes continue to rise. Equality, diversity and social mobility are fundamental factors for the future of the profession. There are many eminent, senior and successful solicitors currently in practice who did not go to university, and this informs our own thinking currently about the various ways in which it should be possible to qualify as a solicitor.'

She added:

'This shows that alternative routes to qualification need not, and must not, undermine the overarching priority that required standards must be consistent across all routes to qualification.'

That's interesting. I actually didn't know until recently that the UK offered this route to the bar. I always thought an LL.B was required. I assume a university degree is stil required for barristers?

I'd love to see an incorporation of this type of apprenticeship into the J.D. program. In my ideal world the J.D. curriculum would be comprised of two years of basic course work (contracts, torts, conlaw, etc) and at least one full year of supervised training. The law schools classes themselves would also be at least somewhat skills-oriented. For example, in Wills & Trusts perhaps the students could learn to, oh, I don't know, draft a will?The apprenticeship would focus heavily on writing motions, conducting discovery, making appearances, etc. Not just the research or doc review that interns usually get stuck with.